The Writing Center at Methodist University

Start writing a new chapter, for if you live by the book you'll never make history. - Ben Sobel There is an art of reading, as well as an art of thinking, and an art of writing. - Benjamin Disraeli No race can prosper till it learns there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem. - Booker Taliaferro Washington I learned that you should feel when writing, not like Lord Byron on a mountain top, but like child stringing beads in kindergarten - happy, absorbed and quietly putting one bead on after another. - Brenda Ueland Journal writing is a voyage to the interior. - Christina Baldwin Always be nice to those younger than you, because they are the ones who will be writing about you. - Cyril Connolly Major writing is to say what has been seen, so that it need never be said again. - Delmore Schwartz Life can't ever really defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death - fascinating, cruel, lavish, warm, cold, treache...

Thirty years passed between writing my last research paper as an undergraduate and the first research paper in graduate school. In the 1950’s we had no copiers, felt-tip highlighter pens, or computers. When I commenced my graduate studies in the 80’s, I was amazed at the improvements in research tools and was eager to use them for my assignments. The copy machine was the first employed, and with it, I was able to bypass the 3x5 card process. My big breakthrough came when I made the discovery that highlighter pens helped me to identify information needed for my papers. I used a system of coding my outline in different color highlighter pens to identify the various sections of my outline on each copied page of information. I also numbered each source and every page according to that source’s placement on my works cited page. Here’s an example of one color coded outline: I (yellow highlighter pen used) A B II (blue highlighter pen used) A B C 1 2 III (green highlighter pen used) A 1 2 3 B...